Garry "Golfgar4" Summers Visits New England

Hello friends,

As many of you know, Garry is a TBN member who has posted here previously in these forums on how he was planning and looking forward to his upcoming vacation trip to New England. This past weekend I had the opportunity and privilege to meet and have breakfast with Garry Summers and his lovely wife Jennifer. All I can say is if any of you ever have the opportunity to meet and spend time with Garry, do take advantage of it.

Garry and Jennifer are the most gregarious and generous couple that I've met in quite some time. We spent over a hour discussing a wide array of topics from tractors to rural land prices, antiques, trends and philosophy of childhood education, baseball, football, the benefits of retiring in northern climes as well as an assortment of other topics. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we were asked to leave the eating establishment we were at [img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img], not that we were rowdy but apparently we were contributing to a 45 minute waiting line. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

All told, the one hour we had was too brief. This was the first time I met Garry but not the first time we communicated many times through postings and PMs on a host of topics. Our friendship we developed online easily carried over into our first face to face encounter. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] It was a special delight to meet this gentleman and I envy you TBNers in northern Vermont who'll be spending this coming Friday afternoon with Garry and Jennifer. You're in for a special treat. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Garry's taking a ton of pics and I suppose he'll be posting them upon his return. And so with that, I'll let him at some point continue this discussion thread as he shares his vacation experiences.

Re: Garry "Golfgar4" Summers Visits New England

Few will be surprised with your impressions of Garry and his wife, Bob. Many of us would enjoy some time with them, I'm sure. Now, the question is: Will his personality change with a tractor purchase? A good study for some budding graduate student...

Re: Garry "Golfgar4" Summers Visits New England

I missed Garry by about 30min. when he stopped at my antique shop on his way thru on the 7th. We did talk on the phone which was a delight! So those of you who will see him this week tell him I'm really sorry I missed him.

Re: Garry "Golfgar4" Summers Visits New England

<font color="blue">Now, the question is: Will his personality change with a tractor purchase? </font>

Bill,

No, I'd venture to say it will likely be enhanced to an even greater degree. Garry's jovial attitude if ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 may go from a 10 to off the scale (if that's possible) when he buys that tractor. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> A good study for some budding graduate student... </font>

This gets into psychology which is right up your alley. From an experiential perspective, I can attest that my brief one hour encounter with Garry lifted my spirits for the remainder of the day. He's just a real pleasant, courteous gentleman to meet and talk to. I wish other folks I meet were like him.

Re: Garry "Golfgar4" Summers Visits New England

Hello Bob! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

We made it back, and are trying to get unpacked, cleaned up, put away, caught up, etc., etc......

Thank you for those kind words. You've said very nicely how both Jenny and I feel about the meeting with you as well. Thanks to this great site, we had the opportunity to become friends before we even met. It was no surprise to me that it felt like we had been life long friends meeting after a long absence.

We only have two regrets. The first is that we didn't have the chance to meet your wife, Judy. I think Jenny was especially disappointed. Not because she didn't enjoy the conversation with the two of us. She loved it! I think she was disappointed because she just knew after everything I had told her about you and how I thought we'd get along that she was going to become good friends with Judy too. Well, it just gives us an excuse to plan another trip - either out there or out here. It can work both ways!

The second thing we were dispappointed in was that we only had the one hour. We should have told the restaurant that we were staying for lunch and just sat and talked some more! I know I could have continued for awhile longer!

The work on your home is very impressive, and you have every right to be proud of it. We loved seeing the pictures.

Thanks again for making that foggy drive that morning. It sure would have been fun if we could have met at the Shelburne for the day, wouldn't it? You were absolutely right about that wonderful museum. We spent the day there, and it was well worth the time. I'll be posting some pictures, as you so aptly commented on, in the next few days. I'm having some trouble with getting the memory cards loaded in the camera. And of course, the card I can't get loaded is the one with the first weeks pictures on it, including the ones we took with you. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

So when we get the bug fixed, I'll be able to post the rest. But I will post some in the next few days of the trip after we left you and went on to Vermont. Pete (Boondox) already has posted a few on the original thread that he started.

Bob, thanks again for the terrific breakfast meeting. It was great, and I'm looking forward to our next meeting! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Now, the question is: Will his personality change with a tractor purchase?)</font>

Bill,

Oooo, I hope not! I think Bob might be right in that I might see an increase in my happiness factor, but isn't that true for anyone who buys their first tractor?

Personally, I think the biggest change you might see is less frequent postings on TBN, what with having to get all of that seat time in!! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I will, however, volunteer to serve as a guinea pig for any study of the effects of a tractor purchase on the human personality. I think the results would show that this is the one kind of purchase that can come as close as anything to providing true happiness. Now since this is more in your field of expertise, how would this kind of study be documented? By measuring the size of the grin on the face? Or maybe by how long it takes the grin to fade away after getting off the tractor? Could be very interesting!

Re: Golfgar4 Back from New England

O.K. for the second time within a 1 month's time period, I'm breaking my rule of not changing thread titles and changing this thread title! Sorry Bob! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

You might have noticed in some other repsonses that I posted today that I've been having some trouble with my digital camera. This means that I haven't been able to download any pictures from the first week of our trip through Canada and on into New York. We spent 1 night in Windsor, Ontario - beautiful city - and VERY clean! Then we spent two nights on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. Loved it there. A lot of fun and cool things to see, although we missed the jumper by a week! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Next we headed to Lake George, New York. On the way, we tried hooking up with Von in Victor, New York. We missed him by about a half hour, but we did talk on the phone. Got some pics of his beautiful antique store.

We were in Lake george from Tuesday until Saturday morning. Terrific area. Toured the Adirondacks and the Vanderbilt Camp, Camp Sagamore. That was really interesting and got some pictures there too. I did get a round of golf while we were there. The guy at the pro shop thought I was nuts to want to go out and play at 8:00 a.m., until he learned I was from Wisconsin. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] It actually was rather foggy that morning, so I wasn't able to enjoy all the fall colors around the course. Heck, I could hardly find my ball. But had fun, and the guys in the local league who were waiting to go out when I finished my round bought me coffee and doughnuts just because I was that Crazy Cheesehead!

We took a real nice luncheon cruise around the lake one day, which turned out to be one of the nicer days of the week.

We finished our stay by meeting Bob Ancar, as has been noted in the earlier posts.

Pictures will be posted for this time - I promise.

Now on to Smuggler's Notch, Vermont. It's right out side Stowe. When we got there, the colors were just about perfect.